When was the last time you had a nice nap? If you’ve been to LBCA recently, then it hasn’t been too long. We really believe in naps around here even though American culture has never really embraced daytime sleeping like other countries where, according to David K. Randall, “Millions of Chinese workers continue to put their heads on their desks for a nap of an hour or so after lunch, for example, and daytime napping is common from India to Spain.”

Napping is a mammal activity. Often our pets show us each day how natural it is to take a break from a busy activity and rest. Granted the cats and dogs don’t pay the bills, work 40 plus hours a week, or constantly worry about everything from finances to health to politics to family.

Still, naps have been shown to improve cognitive function. Randall reports that “deep sleep — whether in an eight-hour block or a 30-minute nap — primes our brains to function at a higher level, letting us come up with better ideas, find solutions to puzzles more quickly, identify patterns faster and recall information more accurately.” Improvements have been seen with as little as 24 minutes of napping, according to Randall.

If we think more clearly, then we can maneuver through our daily lives a bit better, no matter what issues we face individually. An acupunk I know at Summerville Community Acupuncture in South Carolina likes the catch phrase for our clinics—“free nap with acupuncture.”

Acupuncture can enhance napping. It helps rebalance the body, tapping into the autonomic nervous system and taking us out of “fight or flight” and into the “rest and digest” mode. At LBCA you can nap with your needles for longer than 24 minutes; some people sleep for an hour. You can decide how long you rest.

As the holiday season approaches, the pace of life will get more hectic for most of us. Why not set aside some time to come have a free nap with your acupuncture treatment?

To read more about the modern assumptions we make about sleep and power of napping, check out this article, “Rethinking Sleep.”

Part of Nancy Norman's famous painting, "Aculand," that hangs in Working Class Acupuncture in Portland.